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When Ms. Martinez travels, she will sometimes bring one of her own five reborn dolls to photograph people’s reactions. She prefers to carry them in open bags because she feels uneasy putting them into closed containers, and her suitcases are always searched by airport security if a doll shows up in a scan. This leads to unusual encounters — like when other people in line get upset thinking that a real baby is about to be harmed by X-rays as they pass through security (Slide 13).

“These dolls are very powerful objects,” she said. “If I bring one of these dolls out, there’ll be a group of people around me very, very fast. They soon know it’s not real, but people have very strong reactions. I’ve seen people who will hold them, and their bodies will start responding and they’ll be rocking them. And then they realize and feel a little embarrassed.”

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While Ms. Martinez respects the work of many of the artists who create reborn dolls, she does not share the feelings of the women who make up this subculture.

“For me, they’re dolls that are beautifully made, crafted, but part of my fascination is I don’t feel these things,” she said. “I’m fascinated by how people react, but I’m very, very neutral about them.”

Coupled with the bit about supposedly not having kids of her own because she got “burned out” as a big sister of 7, I think we can assume this poor woman is utterly emotionally crippled. Sad.

I have a friend who made porcelain dolls and collected them. I use to hum the theme to The Twilight Zone when I went into her house. She didn’t treat the like they were real, just to many of them on display.

Years ago my mom was exhibiting more and more signs of Alzheimer’s Disease. One day she told me she wanted me to buy her a newborn baby doll out of Parade Magazine. It totally creeped me out and I didn’t order her one. But now, as the disease has progressed and she is almost non-communicative, she is comforted by holding a baby doll. It doesn’t bother me anymore. She was a good mom.

“That right-wing Fundamentalist Christian women, major constituents of this fake mommy pathology, support crazy, mean-stupid politics that hurt living, breathing children makes their cult-like obsession with these dolls even more disturbing.”

“It is fascinating that apparently, this form of play is the province of conservative Christian post-menopausal women.”

“Why can’t these right-to-lifers volunteer to help care for real unwanted children with real needs?”

A rather odd hobby but raging and arrogant NY Times readers are creepier than women who play with dolls. If the article was about an “art installation” with aborted fetuses, they’d be stretching to make dumb ironic jokes and finding a way to praise it for “speaking truth to power” or some such bulls-t.

Ex was into this mess. As a Christian, I recall the first time I saw one of these things – I was struck, floored even, by a feeling that if anything in modern times could be construed as being idolatry, or blasphemy, the “reborn doll” thingy was about as close as one could get.

I know it makes no logical sense, but that is how I felt at the time, and I feel the same way now. Ugh.